Sunday 16 December 2007

provoleta

I should start off this post with a disclaimer that provoleta is one of the most unhealthy dishes I've ever made.

You can rightly assume that it was also delicious!

I think this dish really highlights Argentina’s strong cultural heritage from Spain and Italy. The sauce combines the essence of pesto with an Italian cheese in a Spanish style recipe.

Although very rich, I read that provoleta is a traditional entrée to a meaty main course in Argentina. It’s heavy so I find it hard to imagine eating provoleta and then tucking into a steak, but the flavours match red meat well and the chimichurri sauce is wonderful with grilled beef.

My photo shows a quarter chunk of provolone, but it's better to get a thinner, round slice (top section) from the whole wheel than a quarter. It's easier to grill and melt through that way.

Provoleta
Traditional Argentinean recipe. Serves 4.
Ingredients:
250g provolone, in a whole round slice
½ cup chimichurri sauce
Crusty bread
Method:
1. Grease the base of a baking dish very lightly with olive oil.
2. Grill provolone until bubbly and melted.
3. Pour over chimicurri sauce and serve immediately with crusty bread.


Chimichurri
Recipe by The Food Network. Makes 375ml (1½ cups).
Ingredients:
½ cup canola oil
½ cup olive oil
½ cup flat leaf parsley, chopped
¼ cup malt vinegar
4 cloves garlic
1 tablespoon powdered aji molido (substitute sweet paprika)
1 teaspoon red chilli flakes
Pinch coarse sea salt
Method:
1. Place garlic, aji molido, parsley, chilli flakes and salt in the bowl of a food processor and purée until well ground.
2. With the machine running, add vinegar and slowly pour in oil. Process until emulsified.
3. In a deep jar, the sauce can be kept for up to 3 months in the refrigerator.

This is the final Weekend Herb Blogging for 2007. It's been a big year and I've contributed 37 times to WHB in 2007. I'm pretty pleased with that effort considering all the overseas holidays and work related trips I've been on this year.

In this last week our WHB host is Astrid from Paulchen's Food Blog in Vienna, Austria. Be sure to visit her recap for the final herb frenzy of '07!

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5 comments:

  1. It sounds like it would be absolutely delicious. I think it's ok to splurge on something like this once in a while if you eat healthy things most of the time!

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  2. The "goo factor" in the last photo has won me over...bring it on!

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  3. kalyn - yes, yes of course i eat healthy things most of the time . . . :)

    peter - there would be even more melted goodness if you used a thinner slice of cheese than i did.

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  4. Wow, what a spectacular dish. Did you really do all that yourself or did someone help you do the sauce and stuff? Is it the same person that's holding the spoon? Great blog!

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  5. anon (or should i say jonas!) yes i did get help as you know perfectly well.

    everyone, my husband was the one who cooked this dish. full disclosure.

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